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zravkapt View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: What do you think of these albums....
    Posted: November 28 2013 at 13:24
I have not heard even a single song from the following four albums. I will also list which was the latest album I heard in full from these bands.

- Yes Magnification Open Your Eyes was the last album I owned/heard in full.

- Jethro Tull Roots To Branches The last Tull album I heard in full was 'A'.

- Rush Clockwork Angels Counterparts was the last Rush album I heard in full.

- Van Der Graaf Generator Present I have not heard any of the reunion albums; I am familiar with where they left off as Van Der Graaf.

Please tell me what you think about these albums and how they compare with the rest of these bands' discographies.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 13:46
Roots to Branches is okay, it's definitely better than most of the band's 1980s output.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 14:36
Clockwork Angels is great and probably overtaking just about everything Rush has done since Grace Under Pressure.

Magnification is good. Their 'idea' was to use an orchestra instead of keyboards. The symphonic tour happened at about the same time and spawned my favourite music DVD.

Don't know the others
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 14:41
I like Magnification, it's quite classy and might be their best "late" album. I prefer it to any other post-90125 album. Good long and short tunes with tasteful orch arrangements.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 16:31
Clockwork Angels is bad, and that's coming from a man that cites them as their favorite band. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 16:49
The production quality of Clockwork Angels sounds too unpleasant for me to have explored it very much.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 20:57
Roots to Branches is one of my most played album...ever.

Magnification is excellent.

Clockwork Angels is a 'good' Rush record.

Present is...disappointing.

Edited by Barbu - November 28 2013 at 20:59
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 21:28
For me, Magnification is a great album with some really wonderful songs (much better than the Billy Sherwood eras albums). "In the Presence of" is the closest Yes has got to the 70's sound since... well, the 70's. I still miss the keyboards, and it would have been wonderful if this album had been made with Wakeman too, but it's great as it is. And the following tour (and live album) was really awsome too.

Roots to Branches was OK, but nothing I really loved.

I really liked Clockwork Angels, and out of this 3 albums it is the one I have liked the most (for I haven't heard the VDGG one). I liked every single song on that album, which is something no other Rush album has done for me. The sound is also much heavier than the stuff I've heard from them from the 70's (which might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the listener)... at times it almost sounds like metal.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 21:39
Present from VDGG is excellent, I like it much better than the three studio albums that have followed. 4.5 stars in my opinion.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 23:51
Originally posted by Horizons Horizons wrote:

Clockwork Angels is bad, and that's coming from a man that cites them as their favorite band. 



I must admit you're the first person I've heard say/write that. Most Rushians like or love it. What is it about it that turns you off and what do you think of VT and S&A?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2013 at 23:53

The only one I've heard of the bunch is Clockwork Angels. For me, it's a 4 star album. It doesn't work quite as well if listening to isolated tracks, more so than the past few they've done, but that's not a problem for someone like me who prefers to digest entire albums at a time. It's on par with the stuff they were doing three decades prior in my opinion.

I can safely recommend it. It's very solid and has probably the best album closer they've ever done, which says a lot. It's not quite as musically complex as others, but it's still very tasteful and well-executed.



Edited by Neo-Romantic - November 28 2013 at 23:54
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 01:08
Roots to Branches has 3 or 4 classic songs on it...Rare and Precious Chain, Beside Myself and the mind boggling This Free Will. The rest of the tracks range from 3 or 4 good tracks (Valley, Roots To Branches, At Last Forever) to 2 or 3 awful offerings (Stuck in the August Rain, Another Harry's Bar). I rate it a 3.5 star album....it's well worth getting.

Present does have some great tracks (the first 4....I downloaded from iTunes) but I haven't heard the rest of the album. 

Don't know about the others.


Edited by BarryGlibb - November 29 2013 at 16:43
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 05:13
Thanks for the responses so far.Thumbs Up
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 05:30
Present sounded pretty good to ne (I heard it once). Better than Trisector, but my favourite post-2000 VdGG album is A Grounding in Numbers.

Clockwork Angels is, as far as I heard their albums, obviously the best they did since Signals. A rock solid 4-star album which indicates that Rush have not grown old yet.

I have not heard the other two.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 06:05
Originally posted by Toaster Mantis Toaster Mantis wrote:

Roots to Branches is okay, it's definitely better than most of the band's 1980s output.
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Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 06:17
What is with all this good talk about Clockwork Angels. Initially, I liked it a lot but it is growing old fast.I have been listening to it often over the past year and Im thinking that it is probably their worst of the new millennium. I'm liking Vapor Trails and Snakes & Arrows more now. Its decent but it gets boring quickly


Edited by ProgMetaller2112 - November 29 2013 at 06:20
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 06:45
Magnification is good, but I admit I haven't played it for a while, I must dig it out again.
Present I really like, particularly the Silver Surfer song!
Clockwork Angels is good, but like someone else said, there's something about the production which makes it hard to listen to in one go.
I haven't heard the Tull one.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 07:23
Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

Clockwork Angels is good, but like someone else said, there's something about the production which makes it hard to listen to in one go.

I've heard/read the same complaint about all their post-'90s albums.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 07:57
Hi,
 
I skipped all 4.
 
I have not enjoyed VDGG as much as I have Peter Hammill solo. I am not sure that the band has the strength and spunk that id did 30 years ago, and I think the design is getting tired and old, and the lyrics are not enough.
 
I'm on to other things already, and re-hashing is not on my agenda.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2013 at 10:59
Snakes and Arrows and Vapor Trails (remastered or not) is miles past CA.

CA is not only lyrically boring, but the drumming and some of the compositions just fall flat. 
The production is bleh like mentioned. I was so disappointed with it. It didn't sound interesting whatsoever.

The only songs i did listen to were Caravan, title track, and Garden. I say did because i no longer even give those a listen unfortunately. Maybe in the future ill try it again, but honestly i'll just keep to S&A or VT. Both 4* albums. 

Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.
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